With that ultimate goal in mind, Kent SeaTech changed its name to Kent BioEnergy and is researching the most efficient ways to grow and harvest algae in 25 acres of green-hued ponds.

Van Olst said the company has about a dozen patents and others pending, including one for a process by which algae is made to clump and fall to the bottom of tanks for easy collection.

Al Darzins, the applied science group manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, said Kent BioEnergy is one of about 100 companies worldwide trying to develop algae for commercial use and competing for private and government funding.

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